2013 Tasmanian Literary Prizes winners announced

James Boyce has won the overall Tasmania Book Prize in this year’s Tasmanian Literary Prizes, presented on 22 March as part of the Ten Days on the Island festival.

Boyce won the $25,000 prize for the best book with Tasmanian content in any genre for 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia (Black Inc.).

The $5000 Margaret Scott Prize for the best book by a Tasmanian writer was awarded to Rohan Wilson for The Roving Party (A&U).

The University of Tasmania prize for the best unpublished literary work by an emerging Tasmanian writer, also worth $5000, was awarded to Katherine Johnson for her manuscript Kubla.

To see the titles shortlisted for this year’s awards, click here.

The Tasmanian Literary Prizes also included the People’s Choice Awards for the first time this year, with members of the public voting for their favourite books and manuscripts in each category. The winners of the People’s Choice Awards are:

• Tasmania Book Prize: Last Days of the Mill (Peter Hay & Tony Thorne, Forty Degrees South)
• Margaret Scott Prize: Pedder Dreaming: Olegas Truchanas and a Lost Tasmanian Wilderness (Natasha Cica, UQP)
• University of Tasmania Prize: Kubla (Katherine Johnson).

The Tasmanian Literary Prizes are presented biennially by the Tasmanian Government through Arts Tasmania and the University of Tasmania, in association with Ten Days on the Island. The awards are designed to recognise Tasmanian literary culture, and the influence that Tasmania has on literature. For more information, visit the Arts Tasmania website here.

Category: Local news